Showing Difference between two datetime values in hours

Question

I am retrieving two date time values from the database. Once the value is retrieved, I need the difference between the two values. For that, I create a timespan variable to store the difference of the 2 date values.

TimeSpan? variable = datevalue1 - datevalue2;

Now i need to show the difference which is stored in the Timespan variable in terms of number of hours. I referred to TimeSpan.TotalHours but couldn't apply the same for some reason. How do I do that? I am using C# on a MVC project. I simple need to show the difference value in hours?

EDIT: Since timespan was nullable, i couldn't use the total hours property. Now I can use it by doing TimeSpanVal.Value.TotalHours;

Neophyte

Why could you not use TimeSpan.TotalHours? – Recusant

it doesnt allow me to. i tried. :( – Neophyte

is it because my timespan is nullable that i cannot use the totalhours property? – Neophyte

See example of datetime difference, Hours Difference, Minutes difference on codegateway.com/2012/01/c-datetime-difference.html – Virile

the TimeSpan object has total hours in .Value.TotalHours – Petrol

Answer 1

I think you're confused because you haven't declared a TimeSpan you've declared a TimeSpan? which is a nullable TimeSpan. Either remove the question mark if you don't need it to be nullable or use variable.Value.TotalHours.

Slaughterhouse

Answer 2

you may also want to look at

var hours = (datevalue1 - datevalue2).TotalHours;

Disillusionize

but in this case system shows " 'System.Nullable<System.TimeSpan>' does not contain a definition for 'TotalHours' and no extension method 'TotalHours' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Nullable<System.TimeSpan>' could be found ". Can you please tell me the reason for it? – Desirous

Nullable would need a .Value.TotalHours instead of just .TotalHours. It's a factor of the nullable wrapping. You could alternatively cast it as a timespan --> ((TimeSpan) (nullabledatevalue1 - nullabledatevalue2)).TotalHours – Disillusionize

Answer 3

In the sample, we are creating two datetime objects, one with current time and another one with 75 seconds added to the current time. Then we will call the method .Subtract() on the second DateTime object. This will return a TimeSpan object. Once we get the TimeSpan object, we can use the properties of TimeSpan to get the actual Hours, Minutes and Seconds.

DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;

 DateTime endTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds( 75 );

 TimeSpan span = endTime.Subtract ( startTime );
 Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (seconds): " + span.Seconds );
 Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (minutes): " + span.Minutes );
 Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (hours): " + span.Hours );
 Console.WriteLine( "Time Difference (days): " + span.Days );

Result:

Time Difference (seconds): 15
Time Difference (minutes): 1
Time Difference (hours): 0
Time Difference (days): 0

Stansbury

You want to use "Total" such as TotalSeconds, TotalMinutes etc – Inflexed

Answer 4

Is there a reason you're using Nullable?

If you want to use Nullable then you can write variable.Value.TotalHours.

Or you can just write: (datevalue1 - datevalue2).TotalHours.

Oribella

Probably because datevalue1 or datevalue2 are DateTime? – Inflexed

@Filip, it's ok, they should be DateTime. In .NET, DateTime - DateTime = TimeSpan. – Oribella

@Illya, I mean that They are probably Nullable<DateTime> and therefore you get a Nullable<TimeSpan>. – Inflexed

Your answer is really effective. I was looking for it. – Gelatin

Answer 5

Here is another example of subtracting two dates in C# ...

if ( DateTime.Now.Subtract(Convert.ToDateTime(objDateValueFromDatabase.CreatedOn)).TotalHours > 24 ) 
{ 
... 
} 

Bangup

Answer 6

a more precise way for employee paid hours or other precision requirement::

decimal DeterminePreciseHours(DateTime startTimestamp, DateTime stopTimestamp)
{
    var span = (stopTimestamp - startTimestamp).Value;
    decimal total = (decimal)span.TotalMilliseconds / 60 / 60 / 1000;
    return Math.Round(total, PRECISION_CONSTANT);
}

https://dotnetfiddle.net/tVIoVJ

Petrol

Answer 7

var startTime = new TimeSpan(6, 0, 0); // 6:00 AM
var endTime = new TimeSpan(5, 30, 0); // 5:30 AM 
var hours24 = new TimeSpan(24, 0, 0);
var difference = endTime.Subtract(startTime); // (-00:30:00)
difference = (difference.Duration() != difference) ? hours24.Subtract(difference.Duration()) : difference; // (23:30:00)

can also add difference between the dates if we compare two different dates

new TimeSpan(24 * days, 0, 0)

Representation

Answer 8

WOW, I gotta say: keep it simple:

MessageBox.Show("Result: " + (DateTime.Now.AddDays(10) > DateTime.Now));

Result: True

and:

MessageBox.Show("Result: " + DateTime.Now.AddDays(10).Subtract(DateTime.Now));

Result: 10.00:00:00

The DateTime object has all the builtin logic to handle the Boolean result.

Hypocrite